ABC’s The Family Review

The Family is a dark, intense thriller that will keep you guessing.

Ten years ago in the town of Red Pines, Maine, the Warren family’s lives changed forever when their son, Adam (Maxwell James) mysteriously vanished. After he was presumed dead, the family moved on with their lives until Adam suddenly reemerged a decade later. While the town and the Warrens were filled with astonishment and joy, suspicions began to emerge. The boy’s reappearance would eventually force the community and the Warrens to confront their darkest secrets, betrayal, and heartache.

A decade after their son Adam’s presumed death, the Warrens appear to lead a perfect life. His mother Claire (Joan Allen) is now the Mayor of Red Pines after campaigning for City Council ten years before, his father John (Rupert Graves) a bestselling author, and his sister Willa (Alison Pill) is her mother’s campaign manager. The odd one out however, is Adam’s older brother Danny (Zach Gilford), who Claire and John blame for his disappearance. Instead of enjoying the perks of his family’s name, he prefers to frequently drown his sorrows with alcohol. When he’s not sleeping with random women, that is.

Just when the day appears normal as usual, a teenage boy (Liam James) walks into the police station and declares to Detective Nina Meyer (Margot Bingham), who was the lead officer in the Warren case ten years prior that he is in fact, Adam Warren. While Claire is overjoyed to have her son home, the rest of the family do not know how to react, and some even have suspicions. Adam’s disappearance also affected the life of the Warrens’ neighbor, Hank (Andrew McCarthy). Thanks to a damning piece of evidence, he was wrongfully convicted of murdering Adam and spent the decade imprisoned until his release shortly after the news of the youngest Warren’s return broke.

To further complicate things, the press persistently hound the Warrens (they were literally lurking in the bushes in their backyard) and Meyer’s colleagues do not take her seriously when she begins to investigate Adam’s claims. We get that solving the case is personal to her, but she needs to calm down. She can go overboard at times; for instance, when she radioed in for backup screaming bloody murder for a misdemeanor. Meyer is a decent cop, but she would be an even better one if she didn’t let her emotions get the better of her.

While The Family has a great cast, the most powerful performance is delivered by Andrew McCarthy. Although his character is not a good guy, we could not help but feel sorry about his unfortunate circumstances. Having strangers stare at him and then abruptly get out of their seats as Hank enjoyed a slice of pizza tugged at our heartstrings. We can only imagine the loneliness he felt. What really amazes us about McCarthy’s performance however, is how he can go from being a calm average guy one minute to having a completely chilling look in his eye the next. He is a time-bomb and he is about to go off any second.

Liam James can also give McCarthy a run for his money. Not only is his physical appearance unrecognizable from his days as Jack Linden on The Killing and young Shawn Spencer on Psych, but his acting has improved enormously. On the surface, he’s the sweet, innocent son of Claire and Jack Warren, but we know he is hiding something. Something enormous. Our guts are saying that the family may be in danger because of this kid’s mannerisms. It’s as if he’s deranged but is doing his best to suppress it due to a larger, unknown endgame. He also stared daggers at the parental units as they slept. Major red flag.

If we thought Adam was creepy, his captor is creepy to the 10th power. Described as having a gravely face with holes, his very appearance gives us goosebumps. We are very confused as to why he would burn any evidence implicating him in Adam’s abduction only to hang around town and make nice with the local townsfolk. Did this predator set the whole thing in motion or is he waiting to get Adam alone and then make his next move? Either way, his actions are horrifying and the place where he kept Adam is incredibly spooky.

Let’s also give credit to Zach Gilford. He has come a long way from his role as Matt Saracen on Friday Night Lights. He now has facial hair and got extremely attractive. Sorry, we got lost in his looks for a minute. What were we saying? Oh yeah, his character, Danny, is without a doubt, the most complex character in this series. It’s as if he is completely numb, yet wants attention so desperately. Whatever is going on Danny, we are eagerly awaiting to find out. He’s a code that we can’t wait to crack. Ditto for his sis, Willa. We hope to see some more backstory on her!

Conclusion/Final Verdict: The Family draws you in from the first episode and won’t let go until the very end.

Creator and writer Jenna Bans has demonstrated that The Family’s plot is anything but predictable. Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, a new twist comes into play. The suspense is both dangerous and exciting. It will give you chills and make your hearts stop. The scene where a young Willa sneaks into Hank’s bedroom and finds Adam’s ship in a bottle in his drawer almost had us yelling at our phones! We thought Hank was going to catch her at any second and do horrible things to her. Phew, thank goodness she was able to escape undetected.

“I came back… but I didn’t come home.” - Adam Warren

The characters are also extremely well written as is the dialogue. The line “I didn’t even know what ‘inside you’ meant at 13,” uttered by Willa to her father comes to mind. Blackmailing your own dad? That is a whole ‘nother level of cold and juicy! A politically driven mother, a guilt ridden father, a repentant daughter, a drunken son trying to uncover the truth, and another son trying to adjust to his life outside of captivity makes for one gripping, scandalous series! We suggest you grab your shovels and start digging because the Warrens’ secrets are just too darn good to keep buried forever!